and hung on iron hooks, as a warning to
all other pirates."

This Benito, who died so much better than he had lived, was not hanged
at Havana, it will be perceived, and the version of the Trinidad
treasure story already outlined is apparently a hodgepodge of the
careers of Benito de Soto, and of Benito of Cocos Island, with a flavor
of fact in so far as it refers to the twenty pirates who were carried
to Cuba to be strung up, or garroted. The Spanish archives of that
island record that this gang was executed and that they had been found
guilty of plundering ships sailing from Lima shortly after the city had
been entered by the revolutionists. Their association with the island
of Trinidad is explained herewith as it was told to E. F. Knight, an
Englishman, who organized and commanded an expedition which sailed in
search of the treasure in 1889.

There was at that time near Newcastle, England, a retired sea captain
who had been in command of an East Indiaman engaged in the opium trade
in the years 1848 to 1850. "The China seas were then infested by
pirates," said Mr. Knight's informant, "so that his vessel carried a
few guns and a larger crew than is usual in these days. He had four
quarter-masters, one of whom was a foreigner. The captain was not sure
of his nationality but thought he was a Finn. On board the vessel the
man went under the name of 'The Pirate' because of a deep scar across
his cheek which gave him a somewhat sinister appearance. He was a
reserved man, better educated than the ordinary sailor, and possessing
a good knowledge of navigation.

"The captain took a liking to him, and showed him kindness on various
occasions. This man was attacked by dysentery on the voyage from China
to Bombay, and by the time the vessel reached port he was so ill, in
spite of the captain's nursing, that he had to be taken to the
hospital. He gradually sank, and when he found that he was dying he
told the captain, who frequently visited him, that he felt very
grateful for the kind treatment given him, and that he would prove his
gratitude by revealing a secret which might make his captain one of the
richest men in England. He then asked the skipper to go to his chest
and take out from it a parcel. This contained a piece of old tarpaulin
with a plan of an island of Trinidad upon it.

"The dying soldier told him that at the spot indicated, that is at the
base of the mountain known as Sugar Loaf, there was an immen